Page 15 of Falling for a Villainous Vampire

“That is awful. I want to cry,” she says. I have to hold up my hands.

“Please don’t. I panic when crying happens.”

“I know. That time when I bawled over the leaking roof you backed up so fast you accidentally somersaulted over a display stand. Also, I’m kind of guessing now that you’re the reason it never seemed to get any worse.”

She raises an eyebrow, though I can’t deny it.

If that demon boyfriend of hers didn’t solve her problems, I did.

So I dodge instead. I have to. We’re already growing way too close.

“That’s not the point, Nance. My complacency is,” I say, but she bats it away.

“Is it? I thought we were onto why he took so long to show up.”

“We’re not onto that. That doesn’t even matter.”

“Of course it does. It could mean something held him at bay for a while this time. Something made him reluctant to show his face. Something like three witches converging in one area. Our combined power warning him off. And if we could somehow harness that power into a mighty coven—”

Now I don’t just hold up a hand. She gets both.

And me standing, just for good measure.

“All right, stop right there, missy. I want no coven talk, you hear me?”

“I hear you, but I have no idea why those words are happening.”

“Because I like you, Nancy. And I like Cassie. And I want to … I want to…” I start, but can’t quite finish. I don’t know if it’s a good idea to say these things. I don’t even know how to say them at all without sounding too sappy or desperate. But I manage to cobble something together. “I want to just keep you both. And by that … by that I don’t mean keep exactly, I don’t mean keep you for me. I mean, you know, I would really like you to stay alive. I would hate it if you died because I got you embroiled in vampire stalking.”

There, I think. Sorted.

But she just looks puzzled.

“That makes it sound like you’re the one stalking him.”

“I wish I was. I wish I was the one always making his life hell.”

“Well, then let us help you do that. Together we can do that, I know it.”

“There is no way that you two are going to come up with more than I have,” I say—mostly to try to dissuade her. But she’s like a terrier. She’s like that dog of hers when he spies my juicy ankles.

Only somehow even cooler.

“Of course we can. I mean, for starters, we could figure out why you’re remembering your past lives like this. Because I know for a fact that it doesn’t happen to every witch.”

“I just figured it’s the trauma of being stalked by the same vampire.”

“Maybe. Or maybe it’s an ancient curse he cast on you.”

“I would know if that was it. He’s a vampire, not a witch. He doesn’t have the power to create something so powerful and also be able to evade my sight. It’s part of how I know he’s full of shit when he says he’s compelled. Like it’s something mystical. It isn’t, he’s just in love with ruining my life.”

“Okay, so then let’s think about how to stop him. Because this here is just a list of ways to keep yourself safe. There isn’t one thing on it about how to get rid of him. Not even a little ‘stuff him in a concrete coffin and drop him into the Atlantic Ocean,’” she says, just as brightly and sweetly as she does everything else. I have to pause for a second and process that she’s talking about eternal torment.

And that it’s a good idea.

Even if it has flaws.

“Because he would get out of stone.”